LABORIOUS LIFE WHILE IN PARLIAMENT. 445 



of a master, and on the same scale as his operations 

 on the Turf. 



I do not believe that any member of Parliament 

 ever went for so long a period through such la- 

 borious days and nights as Lord George Bentinck 

 did. At whatever hour he went to bed and it 

 was usually 4 A.M. before he laid his head upon the 

 pillow his breakfast, consisting of one boiled egg 

 and a couple of slices of dry toast, was on the table 

 at 8 A.M. precisely. After reading his enormous 

 correspondence, he began to receive visitors at 9.30 

 A.M. They called to give him information on all 

 kinds of subjects, and his purse was always open 

 to them. When they left, he plunged into the 

 elaborate correspondence which each day brought, 

 conducting it entirely with his own hand, in a 

 writing so clear and legible as to put to shame 

 the scrawl which nowadays is affected by so many 

 public men. At twelve o'clock (noon) he went 

 down to sit on some Committee, and he only left the 

 Committee-room to take his seat, without touch- 

 ing food, in the House of Commons, which he 

 never quitted until it was adjourned. In the 

 House he never missed an opportunity of enforc- 

 ing or vindicating his own opinions, and of watch- 

 ing with lynx-like vigilance the conduct by Gov- 

 ernment of public business. Nothing daunted 

 him nothing exhausted his resources ; once con- 

 vinced that he was in the right, no show of 

 authority, no parade of official experience, no 



